Government of Uganda starts regional consultations on the second National Development Plan

May 19, 2014

Annet Mpabulungi-Wakabi (in red) gives her remarks during the opening of the regional consultations on the National Development Plan II in Eastern Uganda, on her left is Dr. Joseph Muvawala, the executive director of the National Planning Authority which is organising the workshops with UNDP support. (UNDPUg/2014).

Jinja – Regional consultations to inform the second National Development Plan (NDPII) started off Monday, May 19th with a workshop in Jinja for the Eastern region.

The workshop, organised by the National Planning Authority with the support of UNDP Uganda brought together district chief administrators and planners to discuss the development issues that Local Governments would like to see addressed in the NDPII.

“This meeting and the others that are going to follow in other regions are important because planning needs to become part of the wealth creation process at the local government,” Dr. Joseph Muvawala, the executive director of the National Planning Authority (NPA) said.

He called on the district administrators and planners to start developing their plans to ensure their input is reflected in the issue papers that will be shared with the NPA at the end of June.

Annet Mpabulungi-Wakabi, Team leader for Governance at UNDP in Uganda, said the NDP II process is important for the country to successfully realise its vision 2040. She added that this process started late last year with the successful completion of the Midterm Review of the National Development Plan 1 which had provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the successes and challenges of NDP1. UNDP had also provided support for the midterm review.

“Today’s regional meeting provides space to respond to some of the emerging issues and recommendations arising from the midterm review, one of the most critical being the emphasis on consultation of the grassroots and the local governments who play a significant role in the successful implementation of government programmes,” she said

She added that this interaction would help in obtaining views of local governments on the priorities that should feature in the NDPII and their input through their issues paper.

“UNDP will continue to follow the process, so that it can integrate these views into its own country office documents so that its development support is directly linked to the country’s development needs,” she said.

The consultative workshops will be held in seven regions in the country to support the localisation of the NDPII, and aim to identify issues that local government leaders want to be addressed in the national development plan as well as orient them on steps of integrating cross-cutting issues such as human rights, population, child welfare, HIV/AIDs, gender, and youth, among others. To address some of these issues, the process is also being supported by the other UN agencies such as OHCHR and UNFPA.

The regional consultations present an opportunity to discuss and disseminate the new Local Government Development Planning Guidelines which were recently launched by the Prime Minister, Hon. Amama Mbabazi, and developed with the support of UNDP.

The National Development Plan is Government’s blueprint for achieving Uganda’s Vision 2040 that aims to transform Uganda from a peasant to a modern and prosperous country within 30 years. Vision 2040 also states that the process of transformation to a prosperous state will require careful planning and commitment of available resources.